Me & Dinosaur - Me & Dinosaur

Me & Dinosaur

Me & Dinosaur
self-released; 2015

3.6 out of 5

​By Mike Przygoda

The self-titled EP Me & Dinosaur by Me & Dinosaur is a conglomeration of indie pop with gorgeous vocal harmonies, and inspired guitar and keyboard work.

“Baby (I Really Want To Love You)” opens the EP with Fleet Fox-ish harmonies, slide-y harmonized guitars, rolling pianos and subtle shakers. There are some shaky moments in lining up the different instruments from time to time, but the band takes a bold step in driving their tempo faster after the intro and it really accelerates the momentum of the song. The hand claps and stomps in the middle of the song feel a bit uncorroborated, but the ending of the song has a nice build balancing nice piano and guitar countermelodies.

“Smile” explores some interesting synth patches that fuse in with an acoustic guitar. The build from the first part of the song accompanied by tambourines and shakers to a fuller sound later on (E-bowed guitars, additional synth patches and drum loops) develops the song well exploring many different textures. Building to the final chorus there’s reversed cymbals and a vocal chorale that sounds heavenly.

“Remembering Ain’t Easy” fuses some of the country/folk elements of the Rolling Stones with modern indie pop driven by acoustic guitar and eventually some wonderful piano runs on top of some excellent organ swells. Unfortunately, the drums don’t always line up the fills and the tempo drags a bit once the band enters. Besides that though, the song is constructed well to be an anthem, complete with a false ending and then a honky-tonk instrumental jam.

“Paper Cup” opens with reverbed electric guitar arpeggios over an organ drone before a melodic guitar solo enters. The groove is infectious, but some of the vocal inflections border on parody and distract from the subtlety of the lyrics. Again though, the music is very well put together and the build ups (no pun intended from the lyrics) work extremely well.
“The Ballad Of Old Man Jones” closes the EP with a band-like melody and chord progression.   The initial tambourine cracks open up into a nice warm splash of cymbals and the drums find some interesting patterns to vary up each verse with some nice tom work that supports the organ and quarter note guitar hits. The song eventually erupts into a psychedelic sound collage which is used well and contrasts nicely with the acoustic nature of the rest of the EP.
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Overall, Me & Dinosaur has a good vibe going through their songs. Some variation in the “start the song with acoustic guitar and shaker then drop the band in after a verse” would be nice to hear in the future, as well as tightening up some of the rhythms, but the melodies and harmonies are gorgeous and go a long way.

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